Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of Britain has mothballed his predecessors’ projects, large and small, from Liz Truss’ trickle-down tax cuts to Boris Johnson’s revamped royal yacht. But one of Sunak’s most symbolic changes since taking over as prime minister five months ago has received less attention: retiring the slogan “Global Britain.”
No longer does the phrase, a swashbuckling relic of Britain’s debate over its post-Brexit role, feature in speeches by cabinet ministers or in the government’s updated military and foreign policy blueprint released last Monday.
In its place, Sunak has hashed out workmanlike deals on trade and immigration with Britain’s nearest neighbours — France and the rest of the European Union. In the process, analysts and diplomats said, he has begun, for the first time since Britain’s departure from the European Union, to chart a realistic role on the global stage.
Global Britain, as propounded by Johnson, was meant to evoke a Britain, unshackled from Brussels, that could be agile and opportunistic, a lightly regulated, free-trading powerhouse. In practice, it came to symbolise a country with far-fetched ambitions and, under Johnson, a habit of squabbling with its neighbours.
Sunak has changed all of that, with a pragmatic approach that, to some extent, reflects his button-down, technocratic style. (In domestic policy, he has also shunned the ideological experimentation of Truss and the bombastic politics of Johnson in favour of a more methodical approach to Britain’s deep-rooted economic problems.)
But a leader’s style matters, and on the world stage Sunak’s no-bombast approach is paying eye-catching dividends.
In the past few weeks, he has struck a deal with Brussels on trade in Northern Ireland, eased years of Brexit-related tensions with France, inaugurated the next phase of a submarine alliance with Australia and the United States and announced £11 billion in increased military spending over the next five years, cementing Britain’s role as a leading supplier of weapons to Ukraine.
“It’s too early to say whether Sunak has found a role for post-Brexit Britain,” said Peter Westmacott, who served as Britain’s ambassador to France and to the United States.
“But he has banished the much-ridiculed ‘Global Britain’ Johnsonian slogan, preferring to under-promise and over-deliver. He’s also moved fast to fix some of the obstacles to better relations with our partners.”
There are lingering obstacles to a new British role, not least the right flank of Sunak’s Conservative Party, which remains suspicious of the European Union and could yet trip up his trade deal on Northern Ireland.
Human rights experts have also condemned the government’s new plan to prevent asylum-seekers from crossing the English Channel, saying that it will violate international law.
Still, Westmacott said, “Let’s not underestimate the value of restoring trust and mutual respect at head-of-government level at a time when like-minded liberal democracies have more reason than ever to work together.”
Sunak has set off on a grand fence-mending tour. Unlike Johnson, who once sparred with President Emmanuel Macron of France over sausages, Sunak called Macron “mon ami” after they met in Paris this month and agreed to work together to try to stem the migrant crossings.
When Sunak and the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced the deal on new trade rules for Northern Ireland, known as the Windsor Framework, she referred to him as “dear Rishi.” It was a stark contrast to the stilted encounters she once had with Johnson.
President Joe Biden has warmed up to Sunak, too, though not always in ways that help the prime minister at home.
During Sunak’s visit to San Diego to inaugurate the submarine alliance, Biden noted that Sunak was a Stanford University graduate and owned a house up the coast. “That’s why I’m being very nice to you,” Biden said.
“Maybe you can invite me to your home in California.”
Sunak’s Santa Monica residence is reminder that he is wealthy and held a US green card while he was chancellor of the Exchequer, issues that dogged him when he ran unsuccessfully for Conservative Party leader last year. (He claimed the job a few months later after Truss’ economic missteps forced her resignation.)
The White House, in its statement, did not single out Sunak’s role in striking the Northern Ireland deal with Brussels. The prime minister told Biden in November, at their first face-to-face meeting as leaders, that he hoped to settle the issue in time for the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement in April.
“I suspect that the US is being cautious,” said Simon Fraser, a former top civil servant at Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office. “There have been a lot of false starts with the UK since Brexit.”
British officials said the wording of the White House statement was helpful, because name-checking Sunak could have caused him headaches in Northern Ireland’s tricky political landscape, where Biden’s endorsement is a mixed blessing. Many there identify the president, a proud Irish American, as sympathetic to those in the region who want unification with the Republic of Ireland.
Regardless, the deal opened the door for Biden to visit Belfast, Northern Ireland’s capital, next month to commemorate a quarter century since the Good Friday Agreement, which ended decades of sectarian violence known as the Troubles. The president also invited Sunak to visit the White House in June. -- The New York Times
Mark Landler
The writer is the London bureau chief of TNYT
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